13. Asset Impairments and Unusual Items

(Income) expense from divestitures, asset impairments and unusual items

The following table summarizes the major components of (income) expense from divestitures, asset impairments and unusual items for the years ended December 31 (in millions):


	2016		2015			2014
(Income) expense from divestitures	$	9	$	(7	)	$	(515	)
Asset impairments		59		89			355
Other		44		—			—

	$	112	$	82		$	(160	)

During the year ended December 31, 2016, we recognized net charges of $112 million, primarily related to (i) $44 million of charges to adjust our subsidiary’s estimated environmental remediation liability related to a closed site in Harris County, Texas, as further discussed in Note 11; (ii) a $43 million charge to impair a landfill in Western Pennsylvania due to a loss of expected volumes; (iii) $12 million of goodwill impairment charges primarily related to our LampTracker^® reporting unit and (iv) an $8 million loss on the sale of a majority-owned organics company.

During the year ended December 31, 2015, we recognized net charges of $82 million, primarily related to (i) $66 million of charges to impair certain of our oil and gas producing properties as a result of the continued decline in oil and gas prices; (ii) $18 million of charges to write down or divest certain assets in our recycling operations and (iii) a $5 million impairment of a landfill in our Western Canada Area due to revised post-closure cost estimates. Partially offsetting these charges was $7 million of net gains from divestitures, including a $6 million gain on the sale of an oil and gas producing property in 2015.

During the year ended December 31, 2014, we recognized net gains of $160 million, primarily related to the following:

•

Divestitures — We recognized net gains of $515 million, primarily as a result of a $519 million gain on the sale of our Wheelabrator business and an $18 million gain on the sale of certain landfill and collection operations in our Eastern Canada Area. Partially offsetting these gains was a $25 million loss on the divestiture of our Puerto Rico operations. Refer to Note 19 for additional information related to our divestitures.

•

Oil and gas producing properties impairments — We recognized $272 million of charges to impair certain of our oil and gas producing properties, primarily as a result of the pronounced decrease in oil and gas prices in the fourth quarter of 2014.

•

Goodwill impairments — We recognized $10 million of goodwill impairment charges related to our recycling reporting unit.

•

Other impairments — We recognized additional impairment charges of $73 million to write down assets in our waste diversion technology, renewable energy, recycling and medical waste operations.

See Note 3 for additional information related to the accounting policy and analysis involved in identifying and calculating impairments; and see Note 21 for additional information related to the impact of impairments on the results of operations of our reportable segments.

Equity in net losses of unconsolidated entities

During the year ended December 31, 2014, we recognized charges of $11 million primarily to write down equity method investments in waste diversion technology companies to their fair value.

Other income (expense)

During the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, we recognized impairment charges of $42 million, $5 million and $22 million, respectively, related to other-than-temporary declines in the value of minority-owned, cost method investments in waste diversion technology companies. We wrote down our investments to their fair value which was primarily determined using an income approach based on estimated future cash flow projections and, to a lesser extent, third-party investors’ recent transactions in these securities.

Also, during the year ended December 31, 2014, we sold our cost method investment in Shanghai Environment Group, which was part of our Wheelabrator business. We received cash proceeds from the sale of $155 million, which have been included in “Proceeds from divestitures of businesses and other assets (net of cash divested)” within “Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities” in the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows. The loss recognized related to the sale was not material.

These charges are recorded in “Other, net” in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.